Rapid population growth and urbanization combined with extreme climatic events are causing a rapid increase in vulnerability of communities exposed to hazardous events. As a result, disasters are increasingly taking heavy toll of life and property. Unplanned growth both in urban and non-urban areas calls for an adequate preparation to reduce the impact of disasters. There is a great need to utilize disaster risk information in planning for e?ective coping mechanisms of disaster risk reduction. Disaster risk information is spatial in nature and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) play an important role in disaster risk assessment and management. For this, there is a need to create awareness among the disaster management professionals regarding the importance of GIS. The GIS4DRM course has been re-designed to cater the requirements of wide range of specialties and it is being jointly organized by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC), the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), the Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, the Netherlands (ITC), and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research?s Operational Satellite Applications Program (UNITAR-UNOSAT), with its main aim to provide an overview of the use of spatial information in Disaster Risk Management. The course not only reveals what spatial data is and how it is collected, but also emphasize on the use of such spatial data during pre- and post-disaster management such as during early warning, hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment, damage assessment, as well as deciding appropriate risk reduction measures. The course aims at utilizing the scienti?c advancement in e?ective disaster risk reduction.

Upon completion of the course, the participants will be able to: ? Describe and utilize spatial data, GIS and remote sensing in disaster risk assessment and management ? Utilize existing sources of historical disaster information and elements at risk data ? Apply GIS/remote sensing in hazard, vulnerability and risk assessment ? Employ risk information in emergency preparedness planning ? Visualize hazard and risk information ? Apply GIS/remote sensing to post-disaster damage assessment.